10 things you need to know today: November 10, 2023

1. Israel agrees to daily humanitarian pauses in Gaza

Israel has agreed to daily four-hour humanitarian pauses in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces are concentrating their combat against Hamas, the White House said Thursday. The agreement formalized a recent series of brief windows without violence that have allowed some aid to enter the Palestinian enclave and permitted civilians to flee south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Thursday night that there would be "no cease-fire" until Hamas releases hostages it captured in its deadly Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the brief daily pauses a positive "first step" toward addressing a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. CNN

2. Manchin won't run for reelection

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.V.) announced Thursday he will not seek reelection next year, saying leaving the Senate is "one of the toughest decisions of my life." Manchin's departure in his deeply red state gives Republicans a good chance to pick up the seat and hurts Democrats in their effort to hold onto a narrow majority in the Senate. Manchin would have faced the toughest race of his political career, with Gov. Jim Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney running in the Republican primary. Manchin didn't say whether he had decided to retire from politics or run for president as a third-party candidate backed by the centrist No Labels group. The Washington Post

3. Sunak under pressure to fire UK minister

U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman faced calls to resign Thursday after she wrote a newspaper article accusing London police of sympathizing with pro-Palestinian protests she described as "hate marches." Braverman said police "rightly" get tough with right-wing protesters, but ignore "pro-Palestinian mobs," even when they are "clearly breaking the law." Opposition politicians and Conservative moderates called for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to fire Braverman, saying her comments increased the chance of violence at a pro-Palestinian protest planned for Saturday. Sunak's office said Braverman's article wasn't approved. The Daily Mail reported that Sunak had been "warned of a mutiny" of right-wing Conservatives if he fires Braverman. The Washington Post, Daily Mail

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4. Canada investigates shots fired at Jewish schools

Canadian police on Thursday began investigating gunshots fired overnight at two Jewish schools in Montreal. Bullets struck the front doors of the facilities but nobody was injured. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the violence, which followed clashes between students over the Israel-Hamas war at Montreal's Concordia University that mirrored similar fights seen in the United States. "I understand that people are so profoundly disturbed by what they see happening there," Trudeau said Thursday, but, "violence, hate, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and scenes such as the ones we saw in Concordia University or shots fired at Jewish schools overnight — all of that is unacceptable." CBC, Reuters

5. Powell 'not confident' Fed has tamed inflation

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated Thursday that the central bank's policymakers were in no hurry to raise interest rates again but would do so if necessary to cool the economy further and contain inflation. The Fed earlier this month decided to keep rates unchanged in the 5.25-to-5.5% range. Inflation has come down considerably since a summer 2022 peak, but remains above the Fed's 2% target. Powell, speaking from remarks prepared for an International Monetary Fund conference, said Fed leaders had made progress but were still "not confident" they had restricted monetary policy enough to achieve their goals. The New York Times, CNN

6. Spain governing deal grants amnesty to Catalan separatists

Spain's Socialist acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, reached a deal Thursday offering a Catalan separatist party amnesty in exchange for support he needs to stay in power. Catalan politicians and activists held an illegal independence referendum in 2017 that shook up Spain and resulted in a ban on Catalan separatist politicians. Conservative rivals immediately condemned the amnesty deal as a "humiliation." Madrid regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso accused the Socialists of "selling a nation with centuries of history." Sánchez became a caretaker prime minister after inconclusive snap elections he called in July. He could avoid another election and get parliament's backing for another four-year term with the separatist Junts party's support. BBC News, The New York Times

7. Jezebel shuts down after owner failed to find buyer

Feminist media site Jezebel is shutting down as its parent company, G/O Media, cuts costs due to falling online advertising. The company is laying off the site's entire 23-member staff, effective immediately. G/O Media's chief executive, Jim Spanfeller, said in a memo to staff that he had tried unsuccessfully to sell Jezebel before making the "excruciating" decision to close it. Spanfeller said he hadn't "given up" on finding a buyer for Jezebel, which he said had "changed women's media forever." Jezebel was founded in 2007 as part of Gawker Media. It is the latest media brand to collapse as the industry struggles, following Buzzfeed News' closure earlier this year. BBC News, CNN

8. Childhood vaccine exemptions hit all-time high

The number of kindergarten students whose families have requested exemptions from childhood vaccines has surged to an all-time high of 3%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. The record, set in the 2022-2023 school year, came after political divisions during the coronavirus pandemic fueled skepticism about tried-and-tested vaccines that parents once automatically accepted, The Associated Press reported. Dr. Amna Husain, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told NBC News there is "a rising distrust in the health care system." Exemptions rose in 40 states. The trend leaves hundreds of thousands of children without protection from measles, whooping cough and other preventable diseases. NBC News, The Associated Press

9. New York surgeons perform first eye transplant

Surgeons in New York announced Thursday they had performed the first transplant of a whole eye in a human. The recipient, 46-year-old Aaron James, survived a high-voltage electrical accident, and underwent 21 hours of surgery six months ago to replace the left side of his face. The grafted eye has shown well-functioning blood vessels and other key signs of health, according to the NYU Langone Health surgical team. Previously, doctors had only managed to transplant the cornea, the eye's clear front layer. It's still not clear whether James will ever see through the eye, team leader Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez told Reuters, but "the mere fact that we transplanted an eye is a huge step forward." Reuters

10. Kidnappers release soccer star's father

Kidnappers on Thursday released the father of Colombian soccer star Luis Díaz, who plays for the English club Liverpool, officials in the South American nation said. Armed men captured Díaz's mother, Cilenis Marulanda, and father, Luis Manuel Díaz, at a gas station in their hometown, Barrancas, on Oct. 28. Marulanda was rescued hours later, but her husband remained in captivity. The National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's largest remaining leftist rebel group, claimed responsibility but made no ransom demand. It was not immediately clear whether anything was exchanged for the elder Díaz's freedom. A helicopter with a medic onboard picked him up in a rural part of Barrancas. The New York Times, The Guardian